Winter Wonderland 2015

Last year we went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park in Central London with some guests that were staying with us for the Christmas holidays.  We had a lot of fun, so when I saw it was on again this year, we decided to take the children again.

Last year I spent too long in the market and the kids got annoyed they didn't get a turn on the rides because the attraction was shutting down.  This year we managed to split up and take turns queueing with the kids for the rides and managed to get round both markets there too.

 I really liked how the place was decorated and set up.  As well as the pretty lights there were the tons of different, sometimes strange, exhibitions and decorations: barns, Bavaraian villages, statues of snowmen, penguins and all sorts of other things

Some of my work colleagues had been reccommending churros to me which I had never tried before.  I found some and of course had them with chocolate.  They were nice hot, but maybe not my favourite thing ever.

Of course, my favourite thing were the two markets full of stalls.  This jewellery stall just had me bedazzled, I couldn't decide what I liked and ended up not choosing anything and wishing later I had.

I love these druzy-style rings, but I have never seen them with the sparkly stones around the sides.  Does anyone know what this is and where I can find some? (note - I have been googling and I think the effect is called crystal pave druzy)

Little Lady had her eye on these Swarovski sets.

Just the colours...

There was a stall I was looking for that we saw last year and we managed to find it.  It was full of tiny glass sculptures.  Last year we bought a little colourful glass sweet.  This year I was after a glass starfish, I meant to come back and buy it later and couldn't find the stall again :(

Of course it being winter and such long hours of dark, there were lights everywhere:

There was a whole stall full of paper art:

These handmade journals caught my eye:

I did end up buying the kids these pencils, they look like regular pencils, but are about a foot and a half long.  Gorgeous complained afterwards that he couldn't fit his one into his school bag to take to school which was a bit of a relief.

There was also a heck of a lot of sweets, including the traditional of bags of pink candyfloss.

We had a good time, the kids went on all of the rides that I thought were too scary, I got to try churros.  I enjoyed window shopping all of the beautiful stuff in the market and wished I had bought something for myself.  Darling's favourite thing as soon as we go anywhere is to announce "I wanna go hooooome!", this time round she loved it, wanted to stay and for the first time ever didn't want to go home after a short while.  She has been asking when we can go back.  That will be next Winter break insh'Allah.

The other favourite to mention is this picture below taken by Shutterbug Sister which I loved and which was picked as picture of the day on the Winter Wonderland instagram. You can see more of her pictures (many of which I have used), here.